Political geographies of lobbying: Canberra within Australian politics

This paper seeks to examine the ambiguous place of Canberra within the political geography of Australia, through exploring the place of the city among a particular category of political actors - lobbyists. Drawing on a series of interviews with lobbyists working for interest groups, government relations firms, or as freelancers, the city is presented as a central site of lobbying within the national polity through two key (and related) dimensions: the city as a site of localised political knowledge, or metis; and Canberra as a place of 'urban buzz' or situated communicative interaction. The paper concludes both with a discussion of how these concepts may help us to better understand the political behaviours of lobbyists, and how the observed spatial imaginations and practice of lobbyists in Canberra interacts with the theorisation of 'urban buzz'.